The Last Camelot: US Navy’s Secret City

By: J.C. Martin

In the 1940’s, the U.S. Military acquired over a million acres of California desert for the development of the Naval Ordnance Test Station in China Lake, known colloquially at the time as The Base. By the fifties and sixties, a thriving community emerged with all the comforts of the typical American suburbs. In this book, J. C. Martin enthusiastically recounts his formative years at China Lake through numerous anecdotes, each one revealing glimpses of daily life inside this unique military base. From these stories, we learn why so many residents who grew up there referred to their home as Camelot.

About the Author

J.C. Martin, a semi-retired business owner in the Department of Defense contracting industry since 1972, currently lives in Las Vegas. Martin has always said he considers his proudest accomplishment, along with his forty-eight years in the business world, raising and coaching his four wonderful and personable children as a single father in the same local community where he grew up.